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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

PHOTO Congressional Baseball Game for Charity in US

Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) Chairman Ryu Jin, on screen, delivers opening remarks at the Congressional Baseball Game for Charity at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., Wednesday (local time). FKI participated in the game as a sponsor and sent a delegation of executives from major Korean investors in the United States, including Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group, LG, POSCO Group, HD Hyundai, LS and KBI Group. Courtesy of FKI

Jun 11, 2026By Nam Hyun-woophoto
[PHOTO] Congressional Baseball Game for Charity in US

Cheering at work: How companies are preparing for 2026 World Cup

The World Cup is a key cultural event for many Koreans, who use the global football tournament as a chance to take a break from their busy schedules as they gather with friends and colleagues — especially when the matches take place in the evening. This time, however, many matches of the North America-hosted tournament, which starts Friday morning (Korea time), are taking place during morning hours here, including the Korean national team's games. The situation has led some companies to organize office viewing events and use the time for corporate team building. E-Land World, a fashion retailer, will host a viewing event in the auditorium of its Seoul headquarters, where roughly 400 employees are expected to watch Korea’s match against the Czech Republic on Friday. As the match kicks off at 11 a.m., the company plans to provide employees with fried chicken lunch boxes. It will decide whether to continue hosting events for the remaining Korean matches after talking with participating workers. GS Retail, the operator of the convenience store chain GS25, is also launching an in-house ev

Jun 11, 2026By Park Ji-won
Cheering at work: How companies are preparing for 2026 World Cup

SK to build AI data center in Japan amid gov’t push for domestic investment

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won's recent moves in Japan have raised fresh questions about whether the group's investment strategy runs counter to the government's push for major technology firms to expand investment in Korea's regional economies. In an interview with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun published on Thursday, Chey said SK is planning to build an artificial intelligence (AI) factory in Japan “in a timeline between 2028 and 2029.” He also said SK hynix could review plans to establish overseas production bases if additional memory fabrication capacity is required in the future. Describing Japan as “a very strong candidate,” Chey noted that the country has a well-established semiconductor ecosystem with a high concentration of equipment and materials companies. The remarks came at a time when the Lee Jae Myung administration is intensifying efforts to attract major technology investments to regional areas, particularly the Honam region — encompassing Gwangju and the South and North Jeolla provinces — a traditional stronghold of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). A da

Jun 11, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo
SK to build AI data center in Japan amid gov’t push for domestic investment

BlackRock boosts stake in KT&G as global interest rises in Korean tobacco giant

Global capital is flooding into KT&G as a potent mix of robust overseas earnings and aggressive shareholder-return policies turns the Korean tobacco giant into a prime target for foreign investors. Leading the charge is BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, which recently deepened its bet on the company amid a broader surge in international demand. KT&G said Tuesday that BlackRock Fund Advisors had raised its stake in the company to 6.15 percent from 5.01 percent for investment purposes. According to a regulatory filing, BlackRock held a 5.01 percent stake in KT&G at the end of January and acquired an additional 467,350 shares over roughly four months, lifting its ownership by 1.14 percentage points. The disclosure came a day after Capital Group, another major U.S. asset manager, increased its holding in KT&G to 7.21 percent. With the rising interest of global investment firms, foreign ownership of KT&G reached 51.24 percent as of Tuesday, the company said. The purchases reflect growing confidence in KT&G's earnings trajectory, particularly in overseas markets, as well as expect

Jun 11, 2026By Lee Kyung-min
BlackRock boosts stake in KT&G as global interest rises in Korean tobacco giant

Hyundai Motor, Kia unveil world’s 1st in-car UV sanitizer

Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia said Thursday they have developed what they describe as the world's first ultraviolet (UV) sanitization system capable of disinfecting vehicle interiors while passengers are on board. The technology, called Plasma Care UVC, uses Far-UVC light — a shortwave UV wavelength in the 200–230 nanometer range — generated through a plasma lamp rather than the LED sources used in conventional UV sanitizers. Existing UV sterilization systems rely on wavelengths that can harm human skin and eyes, limiting their use to enclosed, unoccupied spaces. Far-UVC light, by contrast, cannot penetrate beyond the outermost layer of human skin but can reach the cellular DNA of bacteria and viruses, destroying them. The system also reduces odors by eliminating odor-causing microbes as part of the sanitization process. To adapt the technology for automotive use, Hyundai and Kia said they miniaturized the lamp and control system to fit inside a vehicle, reinforced it against vibration and temperature fluctuations and added an optical filter that blocks all wavelengths outside th

Jun 11, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Hyundai Motor, Kia unveil world’s 1st in-car UV sanitizer

SeAH Steel wins contract to supply pipes for UK carbon capture project

SeAH Steel has secured a contract to supply approximately 1,750 metric tons of stainless steel pipes for a carbon capture project in Teesside, northern England, the company said Thursday, marking the Korean steelmaker's entry into Britain's government-backed decarbonization infrastructure push. The Teesside project is part of the U.K.'s East Coast Cluster, one of the country's first large-scale carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) initiatives. CCUS technology captures carbon dioxide emitted during power generation or industrial processes and stores it permanently in deep geological formations rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. SeAH Steel's pipes will be used in a gas-fired combined-cycle power plant to process and transport captured carbon dioxide in both gaseous and liquid states for deep-sea storage. The company said its pipes meet demanding physical and chemical requirements, including resistance to brittle fracturing at temperatures as low as minus 196 degrees Celsius and corrosion resistance under the high pressures of deep-sea environments. SeAH Steel also said

Jun 11, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
SeAH Steel wins contract to supply pipes for UK carbon capture project

YouTube creators pump $2.3 bil. into Korean economy, report says

YouTube’s creator ecosystem contributed more than 3.5 trillion won ($2.3 billion) to Korea’s gross domestic product in 2025 and supported an equivalent of over 85,000 full-time jobs, according to the YouTube Impact Report 2025 released Thursday. The report, commissioned by YouTube and prepared by Oxford Economics, said creators in Korea are evolving beyond content production and into a new class of trusted professionals who generate economic, cultural and educational value through their platforms. According to the report, 75 percent of Korean viewers who use YouTube for news said the platform provides high-quality current affairs information, while 74 percent said they value the diversity of content and viewpoints available on the service. The report highlighted several creators as examples of trust-based influence. Financial and current affairs channel Shuka World and women’s health channel Our Neighborhood OB-GYN were cited for building strong relationships with audiences through expertise and careful fact-checking. The study also underscored the growing role of creators as publi

Jun 11, 2026By Lee Kyung-min
YouTube creators pump $2.3 bil. into Korean economy, report says

LS Eco Energy supplies telecom cables to Hyundai Rotem

LS Eco Energy has made its first delivery of railway telecommunication cables to Hyundai Rotem, securing a meaningful supply track record for the firm’s entry into the global train manufacturers’ supply chain, the LS affiliate said Thursday. The cables — supplied by LS Eco Energy’s Vietnamese production subsidiary, LSCV — will be deployed in hydrogen-powered trams currently being developed for public transit systems in Daejeon and Ulsan. These specialized cables serve as critical components that link trains’ control systems with communication networks, enabling the real-time transmission of vital operational data. Given their direct impact on train safety and reliability, railway cables must meet exceptionally stringent durability and quality standards. As parts for railway systems are supplied mostly by highly reliable partners, securing such a supply track record serves as a major competitive milestone for the company. Following the latest deal, LS Eco Energy has established a strategic foothold to expand its high-value special cable business. The company expects to secure s

Jun 11, 2026By Lee Min-hyung
LS Eco Energy supplies telecom cables to Hyundai Rotem

Coupang pledges legal action against record $409 mil. fine over massive data breach

Coupang was slapped with a record-high fine of 624.7 billion won ($409 million) for a massive data breach involving more than 33 million users, marking the largest privacy penalty in Korea, a regulatory authority said Thursday. The penalty is roughly equivalent to the e-commerce giant's operating profit of 679 billion won reported last year. According to the Personal Information Protection Commission, the company was fined 423.6 billion won over the data breach and an additional 201.1 billion won for the unauthorized collection of users' online activity records and other violations. A joint government-civilian investigation led by the Ministry of Science and ICT concluded that the individual responsible for the breach gained access to the personal information of approximately 37.5 million users. The latest figure is higher than the 33.7 million accounts identified in February, indicating that additional affected users were uncovered during the subsequent investigation. The scale of the breach surpasses the previous record from an SK Telecom data leak last year in which 23.2 million users

Jun 11, 2026By Lee Min-hyung
Coupang pledges legal action against record $409 mil. fine over massive data breach

OpenAI's Sam Altman to visit Korea for talks with major tech firms

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will visit Korea next week for meetings with major technology companies, including Samsung Electronics, to discuss cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI), industry sources said Thursday. During the two-day visit beginning Sunday, Altman is also expected to meet executives from portal operator Naver and mobile platform operator Kakao, they said. First, Altman is scheduled to visit Samsung's office in Suwon, south of Seoul, on Monday, where he will deliver a lecture on the transformative impact of AI technologies and strategies for AI-driven workplace innovation, they said. The visit comes as the Korean technology giant recently announced plans to fundamentally overhaul its work processes and corporate culture by fully incorporating AI across its operations. Altman's upcoming trip will mark his first visit to Korea in about eight months, following his previous visit in October last year. During that visit, Altman held separate meetings with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won. Following the meetings, OpenAI signed letters of

Jun 11, 2026By Yonhap
OpenAI's Sam Altman to visit Korea for talks with major tech firms
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